25 years between visits...

January 2017

Barely weeks into the new year and Australia was in prime vagrant season. South Island Osytercatcher in NSW, Oriental Honey Buzzard and Baird's Sandpiper in WA, an unidentified gull in the NT, not to mention a swagger of Asian rarities on the various offshore territories. They were all fantastic birds that were really helping to flesh out my Australian List, but of course it was now starting to hurt my wallet. After amassing 7 new ticks thanks to trips to SEQ and the NT, I was ready for a bit of a break from twitching. But of course, then the birding gods decided to throw a real spanner in the works and find Victoria's first Buff-breasted Sandpiper since 1992!

A rather unique plover-like sandpiper of a true buffy colour, this is a species that was a high priority target for me and a whole lot of other Victorian (and Australian) Birders! I was desperate to see it, which meant setting the alarm for 4.30am and hoping that the predicted showers and storms would have cleared by the time I had made the 2 hour drive.

A bit of background of the bird in question. It was first discovered by Maarten Hulzebosch and Danny Rogers on Friday, January 13th whilst birding at Lake Murdeduke, approx 120kms from Melbourne (1hr 30mins). The pair, whilst trekking through horrific wet conditions had views of an unidentified wader that was later suspected as a Buff-breasted Sandpiper. Hoping for the best, Maartin and Danny were joined by Dez Hughes, Jeff Davies, Craig Morley and Peter Menkhorst in a quest to locate and identify the bird on January 19th. Success ensued and Maarten was able to snatch some excellent views of the vagrant of the North American arctic tundra - finally confirming the identification as a Buff-breasted Sandpiper! The ensemble gathered but the bird unfortunately had once again disappeared. Before departing Jeff Davies also located a Ruff (I wonder if the same bird that was at the WTP early this year) and Maarten had a brief view of a breeding plumage stint (possible the Little Stint from Blue Rocks from December 2016). Potentially their most notable sighting (besides the BBS) was the observation of a Short-tailed Shearwater, a pelagic species loafing around over a lake over 34km inland from the ocean!

Ruff

Lake Murdeduke

Sighting of BBS from the lake

​I arrived just after 7.00am, keen and ready to track down this lifer. The car park can be hard to locate for first timers, but the simplest way when coming from Melbourne is to drive to Winchelsea, go north of Armitage Road, turn left onto Cressy Road and arrive at the gate on your right 2.5km after that. GPS is -38.192854, 143.863920 for those that are unsure. The road was rather precarious and muddy, so I parked up the grass and continued to the lake on foot. The grasslands were filled with Australasian Pipit and Eurasian Skylark, but there were more pressing species to track down this morning. I arrived at the shoreline approximately where the Buff-breasted Sandpiper had first been seen, which was in the SW corner. Scanning through the muck and mud, the first bird I saw was a Ruff, a welcomed sighting of a species I had only seen in Australia once before back in 2014. Surrounding it were a few hundred Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, Red-necked Stint, Red-capped Plover and a handful of Curlew Sandpiper. On the water were large flocks of Australian Shelduck, Grey Teal, Black Swan, Australian Pelican and in the distance, a 2000+ flock of Banded Stilt. ​

Soon I was joined by Scott Baker and the pair of us had a heart attack as we spotted a completely black wader with a long downward curved bill sloshing through the muck. Dez Hughes, one of the countries notable wader experts soon arrived and was able to confirm that it was in fact just a Curlew Sandpiper that was in a very poor way, so much so it had stopped producing the various oils and powerdowns to keep its feathers waterproof, hence the now black muddy/wet plumage.

Moving on, we walked the 30mins round to the next point to the east where the Buff-breasted Sandpiper had been resighted yesterday. There were truly many thousands of birds, and personally I predict that with all this attention and great conditions, it won't be long until someone uncovers yet another rarity at this location - I better clear my schedule. We saw a Peregrine Falcon cruising overhead, many large flocks of Red-necked Avocet, a water dance of Hoary-headed Grebes (yes a Water Dance is the collective noun for grebes!) and even picked out my first Pectoral Sandpiper for the year.

Soon Scott had to take off, as he was flying to Perth to track down the Baird's Sandpiper. I met up again with Dez Hughes and Bruce Richardson and we soon refound my Ruff from this morning this time over at the rocky point. Clearly the birds are travelling and moving about the lake a lot! As we painstakingly searched behind every rock and diligently searched every flock, Dez got the call from Angus Hartshorn to say that George Appleby had located the bird right back at the swampy where I had first started this morning!

Buff-breasted Sandpiper

Buff-breasted Sandpiper

Buff-breasted Sandpiper

Bruce and I hightailed right back to the lake (not an easy walk!) closest to the car park where we found a large group of birders admiring the bird through binoculars, scopes and lenses. I finally got my eyes on the bird and felt a huge wave of relief. There it was! The magnificent Buff-breasted Sandpiper in all its glory! We watched as it ran around amongst the long swampy grass, really showing off its well documented behaviour. Back home (in the States!) this bird typically favours short-grass habitats including airfields, golf-course and the like, often nearby or adjacent to swamps or water. This site was a perfect example of exactly that! It is an amazing bird that breeds in the arctic tundra of North America before spending the non-breeding season in parts of South America. It is a long distance migrant and regularly occurs in Western Europe, particularly in Great Britain and Ireland. Fun Fact - the Buff-breasted Sandpiper is also known to irregularly hybridised with White-rumped Sandpiper, something the Aussie eBirders may have picked up on today when submitted their lists.

​Our bird overall appeared rather dark, at least compared to the nearby stints, sharpies and curlews. The buff colouring was extremely noticeable as were its bright yellow/orange coloured legs. It had a seemingly large dark eye, exaggerated by the buff, plain face and dark streaked crown. I imagine this bird would also be very distinctive in flight.

Best of luck to those twitching the bird in the coming weeks! This is a real stonker, so I hope Melbournian twitchers really make the effort to see this fella - otherwise you might be waiting another 25 years until this species appears in Victoria again!